For USF football, it's about what the big guys up front do that counts

There has been a lot of preseason chatter about the USF offensive line and, in particular, senior guard Zach Herring. He is on the watch list for Outland Trophy that goes to the best offensive lineman in the country.

It makes sense.

If quarterback Byrum Brown is going to have the kind of season everyone in green and gold hopes for, the O-Line will have to keep him upright more often than a year ago when he was sacked 38 times. Although, to be fair, the line steadily improved throughout the 2023 season.

But according to statistics by Pro Football Focus, none of those sacks could be laid on Herring. He took 736 snaps last year and allowed only three hits and nine quarterback hurries.

He also was flagged only five times, and two of those came in the first game of the season.

That’s elite-level play, and Herring will need to keep up that kind of production and more because left tackle Donovan Jennings, the OL leader last season, is now with the Green Bay Packers.

One thing is for sure – the Bulls have a lot of size up front.

Herring, a Florida State transfer last year, is 6-foot-5, 317 pounds.

Tackle Derrick Bowman, who started 12 games a year ago, is 6-5, 288. Guard Cole Skinner is 6-5, 335.

Sure, size matters. But so does the experience of playing a full season in the madcap offense that head coach Alex Golesh cooked up in a mad scientist’s laboratory. If the big guys are gassed, the go-go could be gone-gone from USF’s offense.

The coaches don’t think that will happen for two reasons: the experience, as previously noted, and hours upon hours spent on conditioning in the off-season.

"With what we ask our guys to do on a daily basis, there's no way any phoniness can ever survive in there,''  offensive line coach told GoUSFBulls.com. "If it's there, it gets called out pretty quick, or it sticks out like a sore thumb.

"My job every day is to get in front of them, being honest, loving the heck out of them, never sugar-coating anything. In that room, it's a bunch of real dudes. I wouldn't want it any other way.''

You might not watch offensive play much in the coming season because it’s natural to focus on the quarterback, receivers, and running backs. That’s just fine with this crew because they understand they aren’t the stars of the show.

But Brown will be the first to tell you – and, in fact, he has – that his success starts with the big guys up front.